Production of streams of articles

ABSTRACT

This invention is concerned with feeding a continuous stream of cigarettes or other rodlike articles from a hopper which receives successive batches of articles lying parallel and side by side. Apparatus according to this invention includes a pressure member arranged to extend between sidewalls of the hopper and to move through the hopper, in the direction of the sidewalls, so as to apply continuous pressure to the articles in the hopper while being constrained against tilting during movement through the hopper.

United States Patent i 1 i 1 I inventors Appl. No. Filed PatentedAssignee Priority Tom Rowhnrk; William L. Sainsbury, both of London,Enghnd Jan. 28, i969 Aug. 3, 1971 Molina Machine Company Limited London,Enghnd Jan. 31, 1968 Great Britain PRODUCTION OF STREAMS 0F ARTICLES 8Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

Field of Search [56] Reference Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,465,0508/1923 Kinsley 198/58 X 2,426,993 9/1947 Freeman 214/310 2,620,25012/1952 Pierson..... 221/271 X 2,753,062 7/1956 Loudon 214/307 3,130,8654/1964 Ono 22l/226 3,426,885 2/1969 Rupert l98/57 PrimaryExaminer-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examin'erGeorge F. AbrahamAttorneys-Emory L. Groff and Emory L. Groff, Jr.

ABSTRACT: This invention is concerned with feeding a con- PATENIEDAus31911 3596,78? sum 1 or 2 w INVENTQR MMWJ. ai, MM W A TORNEY 7' PATENTEDAm; slsn sum: 0F 2 INVENTOR YMJJZAMJ AT ORNEY PRODUCTION OF STREAMS OFARTICLES This invention is concerned with methods and apparatus forreceiving successive batches of cigarettes or other rodlike articleslying parallel to one another and side by side, and for feeding thearticles transversely to their lengths.

This invention is related to the invention described in US. Ser. No.702,981.

Apparatus according to this invention comprises a hopper havingsidewalls which are parallel to the articles and extend in the directionof feed of the articles through the hopper, and a pressure memberarranged to extend between sidewalls of the hopper and to move throughthe hopper, in the direction of the sidewalls, so as to apply continuouspressure to the articles in the hopper while being constrained againsttilting during movement through the hopper.

This invention is particularly concerned with the case of a hopper withvertical sidewalls, and where the stream of articles is moved downwardsthrough the hopper. In this case the pressure member, which isconveniently in the form of a straight pressure plate, preferablyapplies pressure to the articles by moving downwards through the hopperunder gravity.

We have found that the pressure member according to this invention is auseful means of maintaining the upper surface of the articles in thehopper (as an example in the preferred case of a downward feed)substantially level so as to be parallel to the bottom surface of asubsequent batch of articles. This invention is particularly concernedwith arrangements in which the articles are fed froma vertical hopperhorizontally past one sidewall of the hopper, for example on a bandconveyor. In the absence of the pressure member according to thisinvention, the level of the-articles in the hopper tends to rise in thedirection of the sidewall past which the articles are fed, so that theapex of the articles remaining in the hopper may have to be removed tomake room for the next batch of articles; that is, unless a considerablevertical clearance is allowed, which is undesirable as it can,for-example, result in the articles becoming disorientated as they droponto the remains of the previous batch.

Each batch of articles is preferably carried to a fixed hopper part in atray which remains in position while the articles are being fed from thehopper, except for the removal of a bottom wall, and has sidewalls whichfunction as vertical extensions of the sidewalls of the fixed hopperpart.

An apparatus according to this invention can be arranged to supply afast well-controlled stream of cigarettes to a highspeed packingmachine.

An example of apparatus for feeding cigarettes according to thisinvention is shown in the accompanying drawings. In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is an elevation (partly sectional) of the apparatus, viewedendwise of the cigarettes, showing a tray full of cigarettes;

FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. I but shows the tray partly emptied; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary section on-the line lll-lll in FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the apparatus comprises a fixed framework Iwhich is arranged to receive in its lower part a tray having sidewalls2, and to support in its upper part a raising and lowering mechanism fora pressure plate 3 which is used to control the movement of cigarettesout of the tray and which is movable up and down within the tray and hasthe same shape as the cross section of the tray-(see FIG. 3). The

tray is open at the top and has a backwall 2a' and an open front. Whenthe tray is in the hopper, its open front lies against a transparentwall'(not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) which is fixed to the framework 1.

The tray has a bottom wall 4 which passesthrough a slot in one of thesidewalls 2 and is horizontally slidable out of the tray to enablecigarettes to be removed downwards from the tray. The tray is supportedto rest upon a ledge '5 which surrounds the inlet to a fixed hopper part6 which is positioned directly beneath the tray and has sidewalls 6A and6B. Across the bottom of the part 6 there run two endless band conveyors7 and 8 which remove cigarettes in a stream 9 from the hopper through anopening 10. A flexible guide 11 controls the egress of the cigarettesfrom the hopper. To facilitate good removal of the cigarettes from thehopper the conveyor 7 is run at a slower speed than the conveyor 8 andis positioned at a slightly higher level, the gap-being bridged by abridge plate 12. The speed ratio of the bandsmay, for example, beapproximately 2.7: l.

The mechanism for raising and lowering the pressure plate 3 includes apair of vertical guides 13 which carry the plate 3 across their lowerends and run through guide holes in the framework 1; the guides keep theplate 3 horizontal. A cross piece 14 is secured between the guides 13and is formed with a central aperture ISthrough which an operating rod17 of a vertically acting jack 16 extends. The jack is mounted on theupper part of the framework 1, and its rod 17 is formed at its lower endwith a boss 18 which is too large to pass through the aperture 15, sothat the pressure plate 3 can be raised by retracting the jack16. Aswitch 19 is positioned on a crossbar 20 of the framework 1 and isoperated by downward movement of the crosspiece 14 when the pressureplate 3 reaches the bottom of the tray.

The apparatus is operated to function in the following manner. Each trayis moved into position in the direction of the cigarettes until itreaches the wall 2b. During delivery of the tray the jack 16 holds thepressure plate 3 at the top of its travel so that the tray can be movedin beneath it. Once the tray is in position, the bottom wall 4 of thetray is withdrawn, allowing cigarettes to move under gravity out of thetray and into the hopper part 6 where they rest on cigarettes already inthe hopper. At the same time the jack l6-is extended to its maximum,thereby transferring the weight of the pressure plate'3 and its guides13 to the cigarettes. The cigarettes are thus subject to constraint tohave a flat upper surface which is horizontal as the pressure plate 3 ismaintained in a horizontal position by the guides 13. The conveyors 7and 8 run continuously to remove a continuous stream of cigarettes 9from the hopper, and so the level of the cigarettes in the tray 2 dropssteadily, as is shown in FIG. 2. When the tray is empty, the crosspiece14 operates the switch 19 and causes the jack 16 to be retracted toraise the pressure plate 3 to its uppermost position (FIG. I). Thebottom 4 of the tray is then pushed back into position and the tray 2 isremoved by being moved initially in the direction from which it wasdelivered, and another full tray is brought into position for thepurpose to be repeated.

This way of handling the trays is such that the exchange of a full trayfor an empty one can be carried out very quickly so that the level ofthe cigarettes in the fixed hopper part 6 does not therefore drop verymuch. This is important as the cigarettes coming out of a new tray haveonly a small distance to travel before resting on those already in thehopper part6. it also has the advantage that the hopper part 6 can berelatively small. The stream of cigarettes 9 is carried away on theconveyor 8 for packing and can be conveyed directly to a packingmachine.

Various modifications are possible. In one,'for example,-the side andfront walls of the fixed hopper part 6 are extended upwards to theheight of the crosspiece 20; The trays are then positioned in turnalongside (i.e. behind) the hopper with the bottom wall 4 of the traypositioned at the level of the ledges 5. Thus, instead of each trayforming part of the hopper, the backwalls 2a of the trays are omitted(or made removable) to enable the cigarette contents of each tray inturn to be pushed in the direction of the cigarettes 'through' the openfront of the tray into the upper part 'of the hopper. The bottomwalls4of the'trays would in this case be fixed to the sidewalls 2, and eachtray may also include a fixed top wall.

What-we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

1. Apparatus for receiving successive batches of cigarettes or otherrodlike articles lying parallel and side by side, and for feeding thearticles transversely to their lengths, each batch comprisingsubstantially a rectangle having dimensions such as to accommodate aplurality of rod diameters in each direction, the apparatus comprising ahopper having substantially vertical sidewalls which are parallel to thearticles and extend in the direction of feed of the articles in thehopper, the upper part of the hopper formed successively by each of anumber of trays including vertical sidewalls and delivering articles tothe hopper, the vertical sidewalls of said hopper cooperating with thevertical sidewalls of each tray in turn to form a hopper through whichthe articles move in a downward direction, a pressure member arranged toextend between the sidewalls of the hopper and to move downwards throughthe hopper under gravity so as to apply continuous pressure to thearticles in the hopper, means to prevent the pressure member fromtilting during movement through the hopper, and means to feed thearticles horizontally from the hopper, past one of the sidewalls, saidfeed means comprisinga first conveyor band which extends part of the wayacross the bottom of the hopper, and a second conveyor band whichextends over the remainder of the bottom of the hopper'and feeds thearticles out of the hopper, said second hand being at a lower level thanthe first band and arranged to move at a higher speed than the firstband, each tray in turn including a removable bottom wall whichinitially supports the articles in the tray and is subsequently removedto allow the articles to pass downwards through the tray when the trayforms part of the said hopper.

2. Apparatus for receiving successive batches of cigarettes or similarcylindrical rodlike articles lying parallel and side by side in trayswhich are rectangular in'shape and have dimensions in each directionsuch as to accommodate a large number of cigarette dismeters,comprisingmeans for delivering successive trays to a discharge position, means forinitially supporting the batch of cigarettes from each new tray at aposition above the upper surface of the cigarettes remaining fromthe'previous tray, means for dropping the contents of each new tray onto the upper surface of the cigarettes remaining from the previous tray,means for feeding the contents of the new tray downwards whereby theupper surface of the cigarettes in the tray tends to departprogressively from a flat, level contour as a result of relative rollingof the cigarettes, a horizontal pressure member arranged to rest on theupper surface of each batch of cigarettes in turn and having a widthmeasured transversely to the cigarettes such as to extend from onevertical sidewall of the tray to the other vertical sidewall, wherebythe pressure member moves downwards through the tray while applyingcontinuous pressure through gravity on the upper surface of thecigarettes in the tray and thus maintains the upper surfacesubstantially flat and horizontal, and including means for lifting thepressure member, after it has moved downwards through one tray, toprepare it for contacting the upper surface of the cigarettes in thenext full tray, the said lifiing means being releasable fromthe'pressure member to allow the pressure member to move downwards undergravity in contact with the upper surface of the cigarettes and at aspeed determined by the rate at which cigarettes are withdrawn from thebottom of the tray.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the pressure member iscarried by at least two vertical guides which are vertically slidable.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the lifling means comprisesa fluid-powered jack having an operating member which is movablevertically upwards to lift the pressure member and is movable downwardsto release the pressure member and thus allow it to move downwards undergravity.

5. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which the cigarettes are fedhorizontally from each tray on a conveyor band moving past and below oneof the vertical sidewalls of the tray.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, in which the conveyor band extendsonly part of the way across the bottom of each tray, and including asecond hand which extends over the remainder of the width of thetray andmoves at a lower speed than the first band.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, in which the slower band is at ahigher level than the faster band.

8. A method of feeding batches of cigarettes from trays in which thecigarettes are parallel and side by side, the trays being substantiallyrectangular in shape and having dimensions such as to accommodate alarge number of cigarette diameters in each direction, the methodcomprising feeding the cigarettes downwards through each tray in turn ata discharge position, whereby the surface of the batch of cigarettestends to assume an uneven contour as a result of relative rolling of thecigarettes, and controlling the upper surface of the cigarettes byapplying to the top surface of the cigarettes in each tray in turn agravity-loaded pressure member to maintain the surface substantiallyflat and horizontal, whereby each new batch of cigarettes is dropped onto the upper surface of the cigarettes at the discharge position througha gap of substantially uniform height to minimize any tendency for thecigarettes to become skew as a result of the drop.

1. Apparatus for receiving successive batches of cigarettes or otherrodlike articles lying parallel and side by side, and for feeding thearticles transversely to their lengths, each batch comprisingsubstantially a rectangle having dimensions such as to accommodate aplurality of rod diameters in each direction, the apparatus comprising ahopper having substantially vertical sidewalls which are parallel to thearticles and extend in the direction of feed of the articles in thehopper, the upper part of the hopper formed successively by each of anumber of trays including vertical sidewalls and delivering articles tothe hopper, the vertical sidewalls of said hopper cooperating with thevertical sidewalls of each tray in turn to form a hopper through whichthe articles move in a downward direction, a pressure member arranged toextend between the sidewalls of the hopper and to move downwards throughthe hopper under gravity so as to apply continuous pressure to thearticles in the hopper, means to prevent the pressure member fromtilting during movement through the hopper, and means to feed thearticles horizontally from the hopper, past one of the sidewalls, saidfeed means comprising a first conveyor band which extends part of theway across the bottom of the hopper, and a second conveyor band whichextends over the remainder of the bottom of the hopper and feeds thearticles out of the hopper, said second band being at a lower level thanthe first band and arranged to move at a higher speed than the firstband, each tray in turn including a removable bottom wall whichinitially supports the articles in the tray and is subsequently removedto allow the articles to pass downwards through the tray when the trayforms part of the said hopper.
 2. Apparatus for receiving successivebatches of cigarettes or similar cylindrical rodlike articles lyingparallel and side by side in trays which are rectangular in shape andhave dimensions in each direction such as to accommodate a large numberof cigarette diameters, comprising means for delivering successive traysto a discharge position, means for initially supporting the batch ofcigarettes from each new tray at a position above the upper surface ofthe cigarettes remaining from the previous tray, means for dropping thecontents of each new tray on to the upper surface of the cigarettesremaining from the previous tray, means for feeding the contents of thenew tray downwards whereby the upper surface of the cigarettes in thetray tends to depart proGressively from a flat, level contour as aresult of relative rolling of the cigarettes, a horizontal pressuremember arranged to rest on the upper surface of each batch of cigarettesin turn and having a width measured transversely to the cigarettes suchas to extend from one vertical sidewall of the tray to the othervertical sidewall, whereby the pressure member moves downwards throughthe tray while applying continuous pressure through gravity on the uppersurface of the cigarettes in the tray and thus maintains the uppersurface substantially flat and horizontal, and including means forlifting the pressure member, after it has moved downwards through onetray, to prepare it for contacting the upper surface of the cigarettesin the next full tray, the said lifting means being releasable from thepressure member to allow the pressure member to move downwards undergravity in contact with the upper surface of the cigarettes and at aspeed determined by the rate at which cigarettes are withdrawn from thebottom of the tray.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which thepressure member is carried by at least two vertical guides which arevertically slidable.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 2, in which thelifting means comprises a fluid-powered jack having an operating memberwhich is movable vertically upwards to lift the pressure member and ismovable downwards to release the pressure member and thus allow it tomove downwards under gravity.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 2, inwhich the cigarettes are fed horizontally from each tray on a conveyorband moving past and below one of the vertical sidewalls of the tray. 6.Apparatus according to claim 5, in which the conveyor band extends onlypart of the way across the bottom of each tray, and including a secondband which extends over the remainder of the width of the tray and movesat a lower speed than the first band.
 7. Apparatus according to claim 6,in which the slower band is at a higher level than the faster band.
 8. Amethod of feeding batches of cigarettes from trays in which thecigarettes are parallel and side by side, the trays being substantiallyrectangular in shape and having dimensions such as to accommodate alarge number of cigarette diameters in each direction, the methodcomprising feeding the cigarettes downwards through each tray in turn ata discharge position, whereby the surface of the batch of cigarettestends to assume an uneven contour as a result of relative rolling of thecigarettes, and controlling the upper surface of the cigarettes byapplying to the top surface of the cigarettes in each tray in turn agravity-loaded pressure member to maintain the surface substantiallyflat and horizontal, whereby each new batch of cigarettes is dropped onto the upper surface of the cigarettes at the discharge position througha gap of substantially uniform height to minimize any tendency for thecigarettes to become skew as a result of the drop.